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Overview

Ted Jacobs specializes in setting the words of great American poets to lush acoustic music, and the results have thus far been strikingly lovely. The Days Gone By is no exception. Here, Jacobs selects sterling poems by Emily Dickinson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Whitcomb Riley, and Eugene Field that breathtakingly evoke the spirit of childhood. Jacobs's folk- and country-laced musical settings employ a pleasing variety of acoustic instruments, which in addition to guitars include violin, recorder, accordion, wind chimes, and more. He also has corralled an impressive array of male and female vocalists, some of them kids, who convey his melodies with feeling and flair. One track, Field's "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod," wasn't composed by Jacobs but by Lucy Simon (sister of Carly), and Jacobs was wise enough not to try to improve upon Simon's delicately gorgeous melody; to top it off, his arrangement soars like a lark. The Days Gone By is a must for the family music library.

Technical Credits

Editorial Reviews

Ted Jacobs' Days Gone By: Songs of the American Poets, Vol. 1 reinterprets the words of classic American poets like Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow as creative children's songs. "Hope Is the Thing With Feathers" and "Will There Really Be a Morning?" are inspired by Dickinson's imaginative, searching verses, while the whimsical "The Sugar-Plum Tree" and "Wynken, Blynken and Nod" capture the playfulness of Eugene Field's work. Wistful pieces such as "Alone" and "The Days Gone By" -- based on poems by Poe and James Whitcomb Riley, respectively -- round out this literate, emotionally rich collection, which celebrates the diverse voices of America's great poets.